June 28th, 2015

(CARSON, Calif) – It may not have been the all-out war he had with Ruslan Provodnikov over two years ago, but Timothy Bradley sure makes for compelling fights in Carson.

The fight also includes a rather bizarre ending on Saturday night. It was reminiscent of the closing moments of Bradley’s fight with Provodnikov, where Tim was in serious trouble.

Officially, Bradley won a 12 round unanimous decision over Jessie Vargas, but the real drama took place in the final thirty seconds, where none of the boisterous crowd of 4,711 at the Stubhub Center knew what was going on.

Instead of the focus being on what Bradley did for almost 12 rounds, the focus was more on the actions of referee Pat Russell.

The win snapped a two-bout winless streak for Bradley and he won the interim WBO welterweight title in the process. Floyd Mayweather Jr. is the full WBO champion and has until the first week of July to advise the sanctioning body if he intends to keep the title.

Some in boxing wondered whether all the hard-fought bouts Bradley has fought in, including the Provodnikov fight, would begin to slow Bradley down. He was facing a fighter in Vargas, who was youth and strength to his advantage.

Bradley dismissed all that talk with a resounding and dominant performance against Vargas, who did come to win, but simply could not match talent and skill of the Palm Springs, Calif. resident.